EDITORIAL: Southern migration: Why incoming 1st-year students are flying south
For many years, the gold standard of college education in the U.S. was the Northeast. Some might myopically just focus on the Ivy League institutions, but schools like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), New York University and Carnegie Mellon University match up with Ivy League universities in terms of prestige.
Interestingly, high school students in the Northeast are opting to attend universities in the South.
According to the Wall Street Journal's analysis of educational data, over the past 20 years, the number of Northerners going to Southern public schools increased by 84 percent. Additionally, some Southern universities have seen 600 percent increases in applications, blowing way past traditionally prestigious universities like Harvard.
What is causing this migration to the South?
Cost of attendance can play a large role. As college costs grow, it may not be as feasible for a family to afford a prestigious Northern college. By contrast, Southern schools are on average much cheaper than their Northern counterparts.
Ethan Goldberg, a senior at the University of South Carolina (USC) who went to high school in New Jersey, cited the cost as one of his motivating factors to attend a Southern college. Goldberg stated he was able to gain a scholarship that allowed him to essentially pay an in-state tuition rate, making USC cheaper than Rutgers.
Goldberg explained that these schools want to increase their prestige, so they want to recruit good students and find that Northern students, who tend to have better high school educations, can provide this.
Some might quibble with this point. While attending college in the Northeast is more expensive, one is paying for the prestige and future job opportunities. This is simply not the case anymore.
The stereotype of the Southern university as a place for students to spend four years just binge drinking and partying is no longer the case. Southern colleges have some serious academic institutions.
For example, Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) has been dubbed the MIT of the South and costs 40 percent less in tuition. Vanderbilt University has been compared to the likes of Harvard University. Other universities like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University have been able to stand on their own as respectable and prestigious institutions.
Additionally, these students are certainly earning good grades. According to Michael Klikushin, a junior at Georgia Tech who transferred from Stevens Institute of Technology, he was used to getting good grades but started doing poorly once he transferred, given the rigorous curriculum that emphasizes test performance.
In terms of future career prospects, schools like Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech and University of Texas at Austin rank in the top 20 public universities with the best career placements.
Even looking at people generally considered successful, many did not attend prestigious Northeastern universities. Only 11.8 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs attended Ivy League schools for their undergraduate education. Some of them, like Tim Cook and Doug McMillon, attended Southern universities.
This should indicate that the prestige of one's university matters a lot less in today's society than before.
Additionally, the pandemic has played a large role in bringing students to the South. While many students at Northern schools dealt with restrictive pandemic measures, from mandatory masking to limiting gatherings, Southern colleges were more lax.
These COVID-19 restrictions, coupled with students during the lockdown period getting to see "Bama Rush" or a packed stadium for a college football game on social media, cemented the idea of the South as a place to get the traditional college experience.
And that is the truth of it. Students want the traditional college experience. They want to be able to go to a football game, rush fraternities and sororities and get to work hard and play hard. That has become more apparent at these Southern schools.
If that is the case, then what can Rutgers do? Given that Rutgers is a school affected by this trend, it is important that the University addresses it if we want to keep students around.
One start would be to place a greater emphasis on students' mental health. For those selecting Southern schools, the disposition of the students mattered. Goldberg stated that the slower pace and Southern hospitality also brought him to the South, and he plans to stay there.
While Rutgers does boast better mental health programs than other neighboring universities, more can certainly be done to improve student disposition. Providing students with more mental health support can help change the overall disposition around campus into a more joyful one.
Furthermore, with university prestige losing its luster in the job market, Rutgers must focus on preparing its students to obtain jobs after graduation. This can involve creating a co-op program to allow students to build on their professional careers in the same way that schools like Northeastern University and Drexel University have done.
Klikushin mentioned that Georgia Tech's start-up culture through programs like CREATE-X brought him to the university. Having similar programs at Rutgers can help with student employment opportunities.
This can also be a way to keep N.J. students in N.J., especially given the brain drain that has been happening.
Additionally, Rutgers should pledge institutional neutrality. As stated before, incoming students are looking for the traditional college experience. They are turned off by an overly political environment where they feel they have to engage in self-censorship. By pledging institutional neutrality, it can help reduce the temperature of political issues on campus.
Rutgers is a good school. It has top-tier programs and has been ranked as one of the best public universities in the U.S. Ultimately, if Rutgers does not change its current operations, the University will likely suffer sooner rather than later.
The Daily Targum's editorials represent the views of the majority of the 156th editorial board. Columns, cartoons and letters do not necessarily reflect the views of the Targum Publishing Company or its staff.
